THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CIVIL CITY OF NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, WILL HOLD BUDGET HEARINGS IN THE THIRD FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM OF THE CITY/COUNTY BUILDING ON THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2010 AT 6:00 P.M.
PRESENT:Mr. Coffey, Mr. Caesar, Mr. Price, Mr. McLaughlin, Mrs. Benedetti, Mr. Messer, Mr. Zurschmiede and President Jeff Gahan.
ALSO: Council Attorney Matthew Lorch, City Attorney Shane Gibson, Controller Kay Gary, Police Chief Todd Bailey, Corporal Mike Lawrence, Fire Chief Matt Juliot, Carl Malysz, Suellen Wilkinson, Ed Wilkinson, and Mindy Milburn
Mrs. Benedetticalled the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.
Mr. Gibsonwent over the estimated budget and the budget report with the council and asked if there were any questions.
Mr. Coffey stated that they should move on to the where the biggest discrepancies are in the budget.
Mr. Gibson stated that they will find that there aren’t much discretionary expenses in each department to cut and while they could potentially find a few thousand dollars it isn’t going to be a big number.
Mr. Coffey asked about the Board of Works budget.
Mrs. Garry explained that when she turned the original budget in it had the $100,000.00 for election expenses that will come out
Mr. Coffey stated that they need to move on to the service budgets, which is where the shortfall is.
Mr. Gibson explained that it isno one’s fault it was circumstances that they fell into while trying to knock down the overtime. He stated that even in these budgets there aren’t many discretionary funds left to cut from aside from salaries and benefits. He stated that they best they can do right now is get a good idea of where they are at and to try to work on a game plan together to move forward.
Mrs. Benedetti asked if they were still on a hire freeze.
Mr. Gibson stated that he isn’t aware of any lateral moves but they did have a couple of police officers that need to be replaced because of terminations. He stated that if this creates an issue they can be put on hold but it will create an issue with police man power.
Mr. Coffey stated that he doesn’t think they went over anything for replacements but they did express that they didn’t want any new hires. He asked about the lady that was taking over for Mrs. Link
Mrs. Garry stated that it was for one day a week while Mrs. Link was taking her stored days before the end of the year.
Mr. Coffey stated that they should have found someone to fill her spot from in the departments rather than hire a new person because times are tough right now.
Mr. Gibson stated that he understands and will convey that to the Mayor.
Mr. Price asked about the police cars being in a line item. Hestated that it is in the budget that she presented to them and he asked if it had to be a special appropriation or could it be in a line item.
Mrs. Garry explained that it was just a request it wasn’t in the budget.
Mr. Caesar stated that the police cars should be in the General Fund budget.
Mr. Gibson stated that there isn’t anything prohibiting them from being in the general budget it just hasn’t had the funds to cover it.
Mr. Price stated that he has never had a job where he got free gasoline and they need a policy regarding this for liability alone.
Mr. Gibson stated that it is something that they will have to examine.
Chief Bailey stated that they plan to implement officer contribution by the end of the month.
There was a lengthy discussion regarding the need for police officers who live within the city limitsand the take home care policy and the need to evaluate this system.
Chief Bailey described the circumstances that the officers are allowed to use their take home cars.
There was a lengthy discussion regarding public perception with the cars being seen out of town and liability issues with allowing families in these cars after hours.
Mr. Price asked if gasoline mileage records were kept.
Mrs. Garry stated that police officers are not required to keep these records.
Mr. Price asked who it is that is getting written up from the State Board of Accounts.
Mrs. Garry stated that she would have to go back and look.
Mr. Gibson stated that he thinks it is more of a failure to report.
Chief Baileydiscussed the quality of life in New Albany and expressed how important it is for him to concentrate on this and the need for the proper resources to do so. He stated that all of these decisions about the service side of the city need to be considered with care and not just jump into a decision because they need to cut budget. He said he is willing to work with the council in any way possible to do this.
Mr. McLaughlin asked______
Chief Bailey stated that if he saw that happen he would take disciplinary action.
Mrs. Benedetti asked where the money for ordinance violation tickets was going.
Mr. Gibson stated that it goes into the parking non-reverting fund and they are going to purchase new radar guns as well as office supplies for the tickets. He stated that the ultimate goal would be to make this as self funding as possible but it will take time.
Mr. Coffey stated that the number of tickets written has gone up so why hasn’t the total collected gone up.
Corporal Lawrence explained that ______. He stated that this is the first year that the number of crashes were down from the previous year’s which is a huge accomplishment.
Mr. Gibson stated that he thinks it is something that is going to help out once it moves forward. It isn’t going to fix the budget but it will help in the future with equipment purchases that keep the department rolling and moving.
Chief Bailey stated that he is looking into grants right now that will ______
Mrs. Benedettistated that system would really protect the public and the police officers. She explained that they don’t get reports on which fund is generating income so that is something that she would like to see in the future so they know which programs are successful.
Mr. Gahan asked if the General fund is $3.6M in shortfall and if anything had changed with that.
Mr. Gibson stated that the TIFF transfer is complete and is sitting there now but they go the news that the circuit breaker was $697,000.00 and they are going to ask them to look into that because it doubles almost what it was last year.
Mr. Gahan asked if the police budget was the same as before.
Mr. Gibson stated that right now it is and that is something they will have to look at and prioritize and tackle as a group. He explained that if they operate at status quo they will be at $17.7M and they were approved for $14.6 but it will be more because of the circuit breaker and they do have the $1.5M from the TIFF that isn’t a normal revenue.
Mrs. Benedetti asked if there are any more TIFF areas.
Mr. Malysz stated that he thinks they are about at the end of it.
Mr. Coffey asked how far back they can go.
Mr. Malysz stated that they can go back as far as there is activity on the TIFF but they can go out and look at it again.
Mr. Coffey asked about the parking garage and the use of EDIT funds for that and if the State Street TIFF funds could reimburse that.
Mr. Gibson stated that they are willing to look at any alternatives.
Mr. Coffey stated that he would like all the expenditures from the TIFFs so that he knows where to look for the money to recoup the funds.
Mr. Gahan stated that the reason this is relevant is because they were told that the rainy day fund will not be funded
Mr. Gibson stated that he agrees with the council and they are willing to look at any alternatives.
Mr. Price asked about that the fact that 80-85% of the budget goes to public service and asked what is going on with the unions
Mr. Gibson stated that not a lot is going on and he needs to know what theparameters are for negotiations and if they want him to go to the unions to ask for anything.
Mr. Price asked if it would be better if they did like Clarksville where the whole council negotiates the contracts.
Mr. Caesar stated that they can’t do that.
Mr. Gibson stated that if he had his preference it would be better served to have a committee of council members along with the administration to work on this.
Mr. Price stated that for 8 years he has heard that they will look into alternatives and he has yet to see anything.
Mr. Gibson stated that he isn’t going to say that this year isn’t going to be difficult but he does see a light at the end of the tunnel. He explained that the DLG estimated that they revenue would be $______M but it had to be cut because of the rolling deficit and once that is ______in 2012 and they need $17.7M to operate so the gap is getting smaller.
Mrs. Benedetti stated that the expenditures aren’t just one time but they keep going.
Mr. Gibson explained that ______
Mr. Gahan stated that they fought all year regarding ______and only at the end of the year were they given a couple of options that they never agreed on. He stated that in the meantime the administration chipped in $600,000.00 saying that they don’t need the council approval and now the $1.6M and he wants to know why all the fighting was done and why they didn’t just move the money ______
Mr. Gibson stated that if they can find money to transfer there is nothing that stops the administration from doing that but they can’t appropriate it. He stated that they wanted to do this to help the budget shortfall but that ultimately didn’t happen so they got frustrated and just moved it over to have to use at the beginning of the year.
Mr. Malysz explained that they can’t use the TIFF money arbitrarily and if there was any tension over what was happening at the end of last year he stated that Mr. Caesar stated that it doesn’t matter where the money is coming from as long as it is going into the accounts and that is where they were coming from He stated that the only tension her remember is the Charlestown road Grant LineTIFF
Mrs. Benedetti stated that the move wasn’t made until 2011
Mr. Malysz stated that he doesn’t know what that is supposed to mean but they did what was asked of them.
Mr. Gahan asked that they make sure that all of the options are out there for them to look at.
Mr. Malysz stated that he would be more than willing to get all of the TIFF information for the council to look at.
Mrs. Benedetti stated that______
Mr. Malysz stated that if she can get him more specific communities he would be willing to look into it and see how they are doing it.
Mr. Coffey stated that he knows times are hard but he would suggest if they need cars or equipment they wait until next year unless they can find a grant for it. He stated tht he doesn’t want to tell them how to do their jobs because they know how to do it but the economy is so bad rightnow it is hard to let go of any money that they have.
Chief Bailey stated that they are just expressing that in order to provide quality service these are the things that they need but the council is in charge of the budget.
Mr. McLaughlin expressed concerns about overtime and what it has done to the budgets.
Mr. Coffeystated that it is phenomenal now over what it has been.
Chief Bailey stated that they are doing anything that they can to decrease this.
Mr. Price stated that they need millions and if they have police and fire that never retire it is going to keep getting worse.
Mr. Gibson stated that they are looking for ways to buy some of them out.
Mr.Caesar asked when they askedabout circuit breaker to ask if it is ______
Mr. Gibson stated that he would.
ADJOURN:
There being no further business to be heard, the meeting adjourned at 7:06 p.m.
______
Jeff Gahan, President
Common Council, City of New Albany
ATTEST: ______
Mindy Milburn, Deputy City Clerk
City Council
Budget Hearing
March 17, 2011
All public meetings are taped and can be reviewed in the City Clerk’s Office